DADT Update

Pentagon to outline training for post-DADT life:

Pentagon leaders will roll out a plan Friday that is expected to give the military services about three months to train their forces on the new law allowing gays to serve openly, officials said Wednesday.

The plan, they said, will outline the personnel, recruiting and other regulations that must be changed. It will describe three levels of training for the troops, their commanders and the key administrators, recruiters and other leaders who will have to help implement the changes.

Under that training schedule, full implementation of the law could begin later this summer. Once the training is complete, the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt troops’ ability to fight. Sixty days after certification, the law would take effect.

...According to officials, the training will be broken into three categories. One will be for administrators and other leaders who will have to be able to answer detailed questions about the new policy. The second will be for senior commanders who will have to enforce the policies and also be on the lookout for signs of unease or problems among service members. The third group will be the general training for the troops.

...The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, however, wants officials to hurry along certification that the change won’t hurt military effectiveness.

“We think there should be certification from the president, [Defense] Secretary Robert Gates and [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Chairman Michael Mullen in this quarter,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. “We need to make ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal a reality sooner rather than later.”

Indeed so.